As refreshed as you are ever likely to be in the unpleasant atmosphere of the Shadowfell, the group waken and prepare to enter the newly operational teleportation circle.

Around you, scattered shards of the Acererak construct remind you of the Archlich's power. It is starting to look as if the rumours of his demise have been exaggerated. Whatever plots are afoot, more remains to be discovered, and, if half the tales you've heard are true, stopped.

Thom recognises the fragments for what they are. One of Acererak's less pleasant tendencies was his penchant for trapping the souls of those who ventured into his dungeons to feed his own life force. It seems that he endowed his construct self with the same ability - albeit without enough intelligence to use them to their full effect.

What Arishat is wearing in her ears once contained the souls of brave, but luckless, adventurers. Felling the construct released the souls back into the care of The Raven Queen.

Deathly Shroud:
Key Skill: Arcana or Religion
Level: 6
Category: Deception
Time: 10 minutes
Duration: Special
When you complete this ritual, all creatures except for intelligent undead perceive you as undead. You are seen as having the undead type by any undead of Intelligence 9 or lower. Powers and wards that affect the undead type affect you as well.
Check Result Duration
14 or lower 1 hour
15-19 2 hours
20-24 4 hours
25-29 8 hours
30 or higher 24 hours

Under Thom's ministrations, the teleportation circle reactivates and thrums promisingly. Tavar, meanwhile, performs the ritual that makes the whole party look like undead. As the zombie-like pallor settles over the group, all seems ready ?

You step through the circle and feel fresh air on your faces for the first time in many days. After the oppressive dungeon, your new surroundings seem almost springlike. Some instinct tells you that you are back in the mortal world, but every other sense you possess shouts "danger".

You have arrived in a ruined courtyard at the bottom of a hill. Dominating the top - and the whole surrounding city - is an enormous skull. Each tooth is twenty feet high and they surround a grinning jaw leading into darkness.

Some appalling cataclysm seems to have struck, for the place is in ruin. Mist shrouds much of the courtyard, but you can make out a central pool liberally surrounded with bones, and you can see two robed human figures moving quietly among the ruins.

Place yourselves somewhere in or adjacent to the blue circle to the south.

I think you are off in your placement somehow...most of us (except Tavar) are shifted a column to the right from where we requested and Barel is off by more than that. If it is intentional, sorry to be a nag. If it is not, sorry to be a nag--I am sure your DM'ness will find some fun/evil way to re-pay my impertinence ;)

Lanthair scurries towards the embattled mage and distracts him long enough to land another mighty blow. Drawn by the sounds of battle, four insubstantial, wailing wraiths emerge from behind the rubble piles.